Absolutely loved Silver Elite! It’s like Divergent meets Fourth Wing—a fast-paced dystopian romance with high-stakes training, forbidden powers, and sizzling tension. The world-building is well done, and it was impossible to put down. Can’t wait for the sequel!

I had so much fun reading Silver Elite! The story gave me a strong sense of nostalgia with its dystopian elements—it reminded me of the kind of books I used to devour in high school. The romance was a fun and engaging part of the plot, adding just the right amount of emotional stakes without overwhelming the story.

While the world-building wasn’t very deep or detailed, I actually found that to be a plus in this case. It made the book easy to follow and allowed me to focus more on the characters and the action.

Wren has a lot of skills and hides some genetic modifications that have resulted in additional powers. The current political regime wants to eradicate everyone who has been modified and has powers. It evoked both the X-Men stories and the Hunger Games. Wren and her uncle have been off the grid until a series of events throws Wren right into the enemies camp. Fortunately she lands on her feet but ends up in a boot camp for an elite military group managed by Wren.

I enjoyed Wren's skills and thought processes. She's relatively inexperienced and I"ll be curious about how she matures through the series. There's an emphasis on action and plot in this book- it's definitely setting the stage for the rest of the series. I'm hopeful for more background and character development and am very curious about what happens next.

4.25 stars

This is exactly the kind of book I want when I’m looking for escapism. From the first page, I was captured by Wren, and the story held my attention throughout. I’ve read many books about high-stakes competitive schools/training, but the Academy felt unique enough where it wasn’t repetitive. The magic system is interesting, but does not involve complicated world-building and is easy to conceptualize.

Although I was reminded of some of my favorite dystopian YA reads while reading, this absolutely has an adult edge. And that’s what I love about it. I’m not upset that this book was spicy, there’s plenty of dystopian literature out there with more complex plots and social/political commentary, but less options when you want page-turning suspense combined with a forbidden romance.

I would recommend this book to those wanting a binge read, a book to read on a trip, or anyone needing to break a reading slump. It’s intense, entertaining, and fun. It has some twists and turns, some I expected (but still enjoyed), and one that I didn’t see coming at all. No question, I’ll be reading the next installment!

I have seen people call Silver Elite a cross between the divergent series and hunger games - for adults - it was fantastic! Wren is whitty, smart, a trained warrior and is walking a fine line being a spy in a world where she knows one wrong move will get her killed. I liked the banter between the two main characters, there were enough twists and turns throughout the book that kept it intriguing and had me guessing what would happen next. Does it have some of your typical Romantasy tropes? Yes - but they’re fun and it was still a great read!

First of all, this did not need to be five hundred pages long. The plot was not coherent enough, nor the characters interesting enough, nor was the prose well-written enough to justify such a page count. For a book of such length, it really didn’t fell like much of anything went down at all.
I had to keep reminding myself whilst I read, that this is a DYSTOPIAN book. If I didn’t know beforehand that that was the intended genre, I absolutely would not have guessed it to be so. The dystopian elements—criticism of heirarchy and corrupt government, fighting back against said forces, poignant political, social, and economic factors in reality—just were not there, and were unengaging when they tried to be. It very much failed in its genre, and that never bodes well for the content of the story.
Our main character, Wren, was the most uninspiring main character I have been in the head of. Not only was she frustrating, annoying, petulant, and often stupid, but it took me until 80% of the book to even learn what hair colour she had. I kept forgetting her name and any semblance of what she looked like, and her personality was lacking to say the least, and very infuriating. She describes herself as impulsive, when in reality she IS just stupid. She endangers herself and the people she supposedly loves (though she her treatment of ‘friends’ left everything to be desired) with her reckless and brainless behaviour, and then is often surprised when things take a turn for the worst! I was shocked towards the end of the book where she removes the very thing keeping her from being discovered while she ‘infiltrates’ the military, though I should’ve expected her to do such a thing only for the reason of ‘proving her love’ to her superior officer, and then act dumbfounded when she is turned in for it! Living in her head was unenjoyable and I disliked her heavily.
The other characters are fairly obviously walking stereotypes that get little to no development: there are the quintessential ‘psychopath’ type boys who enjoy hurting people and are creepy towards women including our main characters; the POC queer best friend who gets absolutely ruined by the story and suffers greatly in the shade of the main character who is allowed to act in strange and foolish ways; the forced girl-hate just because she used to date the man the main character has an incredibly obvious crush on. None of them except one at certain times intrigued me at all, and any of their deaths fell incredibly flat because I did not care for any of them.
The relationships of our main character were all flat, lust-focused, and dull. There was no tension nor connection with any of them, and certainly not with the main love interest. He had no distinguishable personality bar being the ‘dystopian’ equivalent of a dark haired, extremely tall and buff shadow man. His dialogue had me laughing out loud at times with how ridiculous and completely non-sexy it was, which at least made the reading experience a little better. If spice in your ‘dystopian’ book is your cup of tea, that’s awesome, but the constant reminders that she was sleeping with the people determined to murder every single one of her people was, in fact, a major turnoff.
The plot was questionable and downright stupid at times. Nothing really happened until about 80% (coincidentally when I learned her hair colour for the first time) and any action that followed was almost as dull as the training sequences and awful banter scenes. The rebellion was disjointed and seemed incompetent, especially when they wouldn’t use the convenient resource they had installed right in the base of their enemy. Lack of communication and dystopian features just made this fall entirely flat.

There can be no comparison to The Hunger Games here, in fact it felt very Divergent instead.

The hype of this book made me slightly worried, and I had hoped for a great read.

I needed more; it was a YA fantasy dressed up as an adult with some 'spicy' parts, but I wish for more depth. I went in for a deep world-building, character growth, and a new spin on the dystopian reads.

This has been all over my fyp and I just had to read this! It is so good you don’t even know what is coming! This is a great read and everyone should read it!!

I read about 80% of this book before i realised i didn’t care about anything that was happening. It felt like it was a mix of Ai and an author who didn’t care writing it

New TOP read of 2025 read for me!!

I picked this on up and it wasn’t in my usual comfort zones, I was looking for a different kind of story and this was IT! Honestly, I saw military and was unsure but I started reading and there was a pull, I couldn’t take it! I NEEDED to read this book. Absolutely NEEDED to know Wrens story!

This book kept me dancing on the edge of what will happen next, teasing me with bits and pieces to pull me further down - I still don’t know where I stand - uprising or company but I do know I need more!! More of these characters, and this whole world that exists! The shocks and surprises, the heart warms and wretches!

Unfortunately I didn’t love this one. I struggled to connect with the story and found myself getting bored while reading it. I ended up buying the audiobook to help me get through it, and I honestly think I would have ended up dnfing if I hadn’t used one of my audible credits on it.

The last 20% was honestly the best part of the book, I actually found myself getting invested. Not sure if I’ll continue the series though.

Like many readers, it’s hard not to draw parallels between Silver Elite and The Hunger Games — and honestly, I don’t mind one bit. The Games had President Snow; Silver Elite gives us General Redden. The Capitol and Peacekeepers become the Continent and The Company. Numbered Districts? Here, we have lettered Wards. And then there's Wren — our fierce, impulsive, sassy, and strong FMC who channels all the fire of a Katniss while still standing firmly in her own right.

So yes I will say that a certain dystopian formula is evident — but guess what? It works. And I am SO here for it.

I’d also seen Silver Elite compared to Fourth Wing, so when I opened to a map and prepared myself for a maze of impossible-to-pronounce names and overly elaborate worldbuilding, I was so relieved to find regular-sounding character and place names. It made diving into the story the perfect blend of easy and epic!

I loved the rich worldbuilding and fast pacing — I never feel lost or bogged down. I has great “found family” vibes (as confusing as these are for Wren as she wrestles with which side she should be feeling for), and the enemies-to-lovers dynamic brings that delicious slow burn (yes, it gets spicy), and the ongoing theme? Trust no one. Lie to everyone, was delicious.

Even though I guessed the big twist ahead of time, it didn’t lessen the thrill for me, the strength of the characters and the world kept me hooked right to the end.

If you enjoy your dystopian reads with a side of sass, a dash of danger, and a slow burn romance that simmers — Silver Elite delivers. Bring on the next book! I received a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own.

A 19 hour audiobook, but I read it in 8. I know this JUST came out, but I already need the next one. I heard so many people talking about this book when it was released then saw it on NetGalley. Had to shoot my shot for an ARC, so thank you to Random House!

This book was a knockout. A good balance of things I expected but some twists I did NOT. The end? Leaves you satisfied but on the edge of your seat. If you were obsessed with the Hunger Games or Divergent in middle school and you now love romance books, this is DEFINITELY the book for you.

Mild spoilers ahead?
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- Hunger Games dystopian style setting & dictator with the main city then surrounding areas under military control
- Divergent vibe, hunting the “mods”, military training sections and the main romance giving Tris/Four vibes
- World building was easy to follow, love the telepathic powers from radiation? Cool
- Liked the element of mystery with Wolf , even though I was pretty sure where it was going, I was excited about it

Hello New Fourth Wing Book.

I disagree...but that's what I've been hearing.

This was...good? Okay? It was nothing spectacular and nothing I haven't read before but it was well paced, I read it quite quickly, and I would say that I enjoyed myself for the most part.

I am not sure why people are saying this is an adult Hunger Games. Let me be clear when I say it is NOTHING like the Hunger Games. This is more like an adult Divergent. But, I think a lot of marketing for this went to saying it was "bringing back dystopian" and honestly I wouldn't really call this dystopian either. It had some of the elements, but the real things like politics and stakes and government issues that make a dystopian real, were lacking here. This was definitely more focused on Wren as a character, her choices, and her romance. Which is fine, but it is not dystopian.

The biggest thing that made me mad at this book is that what I assume to be the "biggest plot twist" was so glaringly obvious I knew it from the very first page it was introduced, (chapter 1), and when it was revealed (in chapter 45-ish) I was rolling my eyes so hard. No, it wasn't obvious to Wren, but to the readers, if they have ever read a fantasy before, my god was it obvious.

The romance in here was pretty good, I do love a slow burn. But I do think it fell to the sex vs. substance issue that a lot of current romances have. The first time they really have a true REAL moment as a potential couple and are not lying to each other is immediately ruined by smut. I just wanted ONE conversation. ONE. But of course, the smut takes control as it does in all fantasy and romantasy now days. Also a lot of the smut here had really cringy dialogue and references to body parts.

Overall, I was not kicking my feet and giggling, this wasn't anything revolutionary, but I will be continuing the series and I did enjoy myself for the most part.

This was so amazing and interesting. It has all the tropes I absolutely love ❤️ enemies to lovers in dystopian fantasy romance with military vibe! So perfect and wonderful combination to read from starting to the ending.

3.5 stars. I went into Silver Elite thinking it was just another dystopian read. I was still reeling after reading the newest Hunger Games book and wanted more dystopian.

I had absolutely no idea at the time that this was a spicy dystopian. I read this one before its release date and before I saw all the hype and hate which kind of blew my mind to be honest.

While reading (and skipping over the spice) it was just a typical dystopian setting to me. It had X-Men vibes, maybe a little bit of Divergent thrown in.

Wren, a “Modified” (has psychic powers), is forced to attend the “Primes” (no psychic abilities) most elite school (shades of Fourth Wing), where she falls hard for her ruthless commanding officer, Cross. No surprise - classic enemies to lustful lovers trope. No one is aware that Wren is a Mod.

Was it a book that I read in one sitting? No. To be honest, I wasn’t enamored with Wren at all and didn’t even like her.

But… If you like dystopian, and the X-Men, and spicy scenes, with a little bit of Divergent and Fourth Wing for flavor, then read this book.

I will probably pick up book 2, because it was interesting enough to me to continue the series.

*Thanks to partner Del Rey and to NetGalley for the gifted eARC!*

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I went into this with minimal expectations and mostly just high curiosity over how heavy it was trending on my fyp. I don’t read much dystopian fantasy so keep that in mind. I can’t even lie i LOVED this. This is on the longer side of a book for me, but i read most of it within two days. I loved the characters and this book makes me want to read more dystopian type romantasy books.

The only thing that really annoyed me was how often they mention how tiny and petite Wren is compared to big macho man Cross but i feel like that’s true for lots of books at this point. I will be needing the second book IMMEDIATELY btw. Personally, yeah the hype was real.

This was a good book. I will admit it was a bit predictable and overly tropey but it was fun and a great binge read. This had very consumable world building and setting up the magic system was easy to grasp. I did love the relationship between wren and cross. The tension that built between them was delicious. Overall I had a good time with this

Romantasy at its best. This gave me serious Yarros vibes. I loved every tragic minute and devoured it in two days. Cannot wait for the next two books.

This book starts really strong with a kick-ass female protagonist. She lists her top two weaknesses as impulsiveness and impatience, and these characteristics really do guide her actions. She both makes me laugh and root for her even when you shake your head and think, no, don't do that. The enemies to lovers romance moves much too quickly for me and the reveal is hardly a reveal. The world building is a bit disjointed providing clues but not a clear path as to how the world ended up the way it did. This book is only the first in the series, and I hope we get more of that in future books. The side characters are fascinating and plenty of surprises await us in relation to them. I definitely enjoyed the story, and I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the series.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance ecopy. My opinion is my own.